Moses started to move and was obedient to the Lord and His
calling. He returned to Egypt to start with his formidable task of
freeing his people from the evil pharaoh. Now one might expect it
to be smooth sailing from thereon. The Lord was by his side and he
was obedient to his calling. Therefore he most probably expected
that the people would listen to him and that Pharaoh would just let
them go. Afterall, the Lord of the Universe was by his side and
promised him that he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
Now as you all know the story it wasn't smooth sailing. It was
not easy at all. His brother Aaron came to help him, but even with
his help it was difficult. In the first place it took some
convincing in order to let the Israelite leaders accept Moses and
accept that he was indeed sent from God. (I wonder sometime if some
of them didn't grumble that the Lord didn't choose them. They were
after all already the leaders of the people. Why didn't He choose
one of them? But let's leave it at that for now.) Now after
convincing the leaders, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. That must
have been nerve racking, I am sure. The last time Moses was at the
palace they were trying to murder him. And now he was back there,
asking for something that would definitely not please Pharaoh. He
must have been very intimidated by the splendor of the palace and
Pharaoh and his army. Moses most probably still had his shepherd
clothes on and must have looked like a beggar compared to the
luxury and fine linen of Pharaoh and his family. He must have truly
felt out of place. Plus he could have been killed in an instant if
Pharaoh wanted to. He could have clicked his fingers and Moses and
Aaron would have been history.
But still they continued and presented their case to Pharaoh.
They were then ridiculed and treated with no respect. He even asked
Moses: "Who do you think you are? Get back to work!" Now that is
very interesting to me, because that was exactly what Moses asked
the Lord when He called him. As you remember Moses told the Lord
that he was a nobody and he couldn't do this task. He wasn't an
influential or even religious leader, he was truly a nobody from
the wilderness. Who was he really?
Just pause for a second and imagine yourself in Moses' shoes.
Here you are in the danger area of the enemy, looking much less
intimidating than your opponent, and even worse than that, you
don't really believe in yourself. You are only there to please the
Lord. It must have been truly hair raising. I wonder how quickly
some of us would have turned our back on the mission and headed
back home right there and then?
Now isn't that exactly how the devil works? He tried to
discourage Moses again. Moses finally listened to the Lord and did
what He required of him and the devil hated it! So when Moses
started with his task he was immediately confronted with his
weakness, his bad self image again. The devil knew that Moses
battled to believe in himself and felt inferior and knew he could
use it against him. He used Pharaoh to make Moses feel like a
nobody all over again. He tried to break his resolve.
What I am really trying to say is, don't be surprised when you
start out with your God given task, that you will be confronted
with your weaknesses again. Don't be surprised when people don't
believe in you and even mock you. Don't be surprised when they try
to discourage you and tell you that what you are trying to do is
not going to work. Don't be surprised if you receive resistance
where you want to go. All you need to do is look up to the Lord,
and not at your weaknesses. Don't listen to fragile human opinions.
I almost want to say, keep your eyes closed and push forward. Just
keep on moving, step by step you will get there. Do what you can do
and leave the rest to God. Don't look at the end goal, just
concentrate on what the Lord expects of you now. Like Moses, he had
to go to Pharaoh and present their case. That was it for now. The
Lord didn't require of him to look at the end goal of rescuing the
Israelites. No, the Lord only wanted him to be obedient and go to
Pharaoh. Step by step the Lord will lead you there. The Lord will
bring the victory, simply trust in Him.
Lord Jesus, we trust that You will bring the victory in our
lives. Please give us the strength to move forward, give us the
wisdom to know when to listen to advice and when to discard
comments given. Thank you Lord. Amen